Apple's iPhone accounted for 6.2 million of the 9.8 million smartphones Verizon sold in the last quarter, powering record smartphone adoption numbers at the nation's largest carrier even as Verizon posted a big loss for the quarter.

The iPhone across all of its models sold nearly double the number of Android-based smartphones sold in the past quarter. Verizon's Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealed that approximately half of the iPhones Verizon sold in Q4 were 4G LTE, meaning that they were iPhone 5 units.

At 63 percent of total Verizon smartphone activations, the iPhone this quarter far outstripped its 47 percent average over the past five quarters. The figure for the fourth quarter was the highest since the third quarter of 2011.

The nation's largest carrier saw $30 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2012, up 5.7 percent over the prior year. Of that, about $20 billion was wireless revenue. For the whole of 2012, Verizon saw $115.85 billion in revenue, up 4.5 percent year-over-year.

The largest negative item for Verizon was a pretax charge of $7.2 billion related largely to pension liabilities. The pension write-down, in combination with expenditures due to Hurricane Sandy, amounted to a total quarterly loss of $1.48 per share.

The carrier saw its total wireless subscriber base grow by five million customers over 2012, the highest growth Verizon has seen in four years. Retail postpaid connections were up 5.9 percent year-over-year.

The sales of the 4 & 4s really show that people what iDevices even if they have to wait a bit to afford the older models.

Won't it be great to watch all the positive news dumped on after earnings? UGH... I feel lately like the company valuation mimics the negativity/flack the products used to get years ago despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Why is everyone getting so excited about Verizon and AT&T iPhone sales putting a whooping on 78 different Android phones released in the last quarter? Who cares. The real story will come out once Cricket releases their numbers. Only then will you see Android shining. Stick a fork in Apple, they are done.

Who the heck is buying all of these Android phones? Everywhere I go, it's iPhones, iPhones, iPhones.

Last night at the military inaugural ball on TV, as the President and First Lady were having their dance, hundreds of phones were lifted overhead to capture the moment. The vast majority of them were iPhones. And soldiers are not exactly well off people.

Where are all of these Android phones that you can often get free with a cheap suit or a washer and dryer? Are people using them to even out the legs of tables!?

The interesting part is the high sales for the 4 & 4s, this could be for these reasons:
1- lower price.
2- there is a lot of people like the smaller form factor.
3- the iphone 4 and 4s design are superior to the iphone5 and people like them more.
Actually I know 3 people returned their 5 for 4s because they think they are a lot more " distinguished"

Probably a combination of all the reasons.
Who will bet the headline will be like " iPhone5 sales disappoint" and completely forget the 6.2 million figure

Which agrees with the other numbers we are seeing. Good thing for Google that Android is "winning!"

Well if it is purely in terms of market share then Google is winning, sure the US might be different but worldwide Google is number 1, in a few countries the ratio of Android vs iPhone is rather high in Androids favour.

Android is certainly making in-roads here in the UK via Samsung, 12-18 months ago I rarely saw any smartphone other than the iPhone being used on the train or in the street whereas now it's 50/50.

Why is everyone getting so excited about Verizon and AT&T iPhone sales putting a whooping on 78 different Android phones released in the last quarter? Who cares. The real story will come out once Cricket releases their numbers. Only then will you see Android shining. Stick a fork in Apple, they are done.

android will always win the low-end because there are no iPhones in that market. there is no money in that market.

Probably a combination of all the reasons.
Who will bet the headline will be like " iPhone5 sales disappoint" and completely forget the 6.2 million figure

Its all relative. Apples stock price is based largely on analysts expectations. If they expected Apple to sell 8 million phones at $n margin and priced the stock accordingly- and people bought shares to that level then its up to Apple to deliver. 6.2 million is a TON of phones, but if they sell 6.2million at $n margin and their current stock price is based on them being expected to sell 8million at $n- they are worth substantially less than their previous valuation. It isn't that it is 'bad news' driving their shares down so much as it was exuberant expectations driving shares up too high in the first place.

Originally Posted by Frood
Apples stock price is based largely on analysts expectations. If they expected Apple to sell 8 million phones at $n margin and priced the stock accordingly- and people bought shares to that level then its up to Apple to deliver.

Here's a stumper: Why do they matter in any respect for any reason at any time? Who are these people, what credentials do they have, what reason do we have to listen to anything they say?

These are questions that aren't ever asked. It makes me want to become an analyst: it's the only job (other than the nice wait in the unemployment line vis-a-vis George Costanza) where there is zero accountability, zero responsibility, and people listen to you regardless of what spews forth from your mouth. Despite my hatred of narcissism, I might take up analyst-ing simply because it's free money.

The interesting part is the high sales for the 4 & 4s, this could be for these reasons:
1- lower price.
2- there is a lot of people like the smaller form factor.
3- the iphone 4 and 4s design are superior to the iphone5 and people like them more.
Actually I know 3 people returned their 5 for 4s because they think they are a lot more " distinguished"

Probably a combination of all the reasons.
Who will bet the headline will be like " iPhone5 sales disappoint" and completely forget the 6.2 million figure

Well iPhone 4's are being given away free at Verizon so how can Apple be making any money? There must be a lot of iPhones sitting around if the only way to get rid of them is to give them away.

We have numerous anecdotal reports of AT&T and Verizon sales zombies actively trying to steer customers away from the iPhone. If these reports are anywhere near accurate it makes sales of the iPhone even more amazing. You have entire sales forces trying to sell the competition and the iPhone still is 66% of your business. That must be embarrassing for sales managers if the reports are true.

We have numerous anecdotal reports of AT&T and Verizon sales zombies actively trying to steer customers away from the iPhone. If these reports are anywhere near accurate it makes sales of the iPhone even more amazing. You have entire sales forces trying to sell the competition and the iPhone still is 66% of your business. That must be embarrassing for sales managers if the reports are true.

I've never seen any verification of it. I've also seen numerous comments that sales staff make higher commissions on Android phones than they do on iPhones, but again without anyone offering proof for that either. Have you ever seen anything that shows either instance to be true other than an odd mention here and there that some particular salesman recommended some particular phone to some particular buyer and it wasn't an iPhone? Both could be true, but it would be nice if anyone claiming such would offer proof of it.

The interesting part is the high sales for the 4 & 4s, this could be for these reasons:
1- lower price.
2- there is a lot of people like the smaller form factor.
3- the iphone 4 and 4s design are superior to the iphone5 and people like them more.
Actually I know 3 people returned their 5 for 4s because they think they are a lot more " distinguished"

Probably a combination of all the reasons.
Who will bet the headline will be like " iPhone5 sales disappoint" and completely forget the 6.2 million figure

So you know 3 people who returned their iPhone 5s and all 3 had the same exact reason? I call bull. Not to mention that anyone who has owned and used a 5, could not go back to a 4/4S unless they had to- more distinguished? Since when does slower, thicker, heavier, and more fragile mean "more distinguished" when we're talking about technology?

The 4 is great but the 5 is on another level- and that's not subjective.

We have numerous anecdotal reports of AT&T and Verizon sales zombies actively trying to steer customers away from the iPhone. If these reports are anywhere near accurate it makes sales of the iPhone even more amazing. You have entire sales forces trying to sell the competition and the iPhone still is 66% of your business. That must be embarrassing for sales managers if the reports are true.

Very good point! And I can attest that this is indeed happening. I've only tested these iPhone carriers once (by walking in and asking if the iPhone was worth getting), and sure enough the Verizon sales clerk went off on the classic rant about how you are "pretty much just paying for the name" when you get an Apple iPhone. The other smartphones are a better value, and so on. I thought, after that experience, that Apple should loosen up their wallet and allow these sales people to make more commission because they'll have the world on Samsung smartphones before you know it. Well that was almost 2 years ago and I guess Apple didn't need my advice. It's mind-boggling to think how strong iPhone sales are despite the carriers' best efforts to steer customers toward more lucrative smartphones.

Just because the 4 & 4s are less expensive doesn't necessarily mean the profit margin would be that much lower. The components of the 4 & 4s should be cheaper for Apple to buy now, and all the R&D and retooling costs for the 4 & 4s have long since been incurred so they should be cheaper to build. I doubt there's a huge profit difference on Apple being paid (with carrier subsidies) aprox $600 for a 16gb iPhone 5 versus aprox $500 for a 4s or $400 for a 4.

We have numerous anecdotal reports of AT&T and Verizon sales zombies actively trying to steer customers away from the iPhone. If these reports are anywhere near accurate it makes sales of the iPhone even more amazing. You have entire sales forces trying to sell the competition and the iPhone still is 66% of your business. That must be embarrassing for sales managers if the reports are true.

I can't fault the carriers for wanting to push non-iPhones to customers. Apple is so dominate as it is that if a customer comes in not knowing what they want it makes perfect sense for the retailer in the short and long run. In the short run the carrier makes more money from other smartphones because the subsidization are so much higher with the iPhone. In the long run, if the only phone worth buying was from Apple then the carriers lose even more control over what Apple can and can't do, and what they can charge the retailer.

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